Sat, 23 Oct 2004

I've wanted for years to see the confluence of the Green and
Colorado rivers: the place where the west's two biggest rivers
meet, mingling their different colored waters into the larger
river which is the lower Colorado, flowing down to become
Cataract Canyon.

The Confluence is hard to get to, though. The only viewpoint above
river level is located in the Needles district of Canyonlands
National Park. Sounds easy enough; but the only road that goes
near it is a technical jeep trail called "Elephant Hill",
involving tricks like five-foot rock drop-offs. A bit beyond
our skills or vehicle. So instead, we drove to the beginning of
Elephant Hill, then mountain biked from there. It's about 9 miles
to the confluence overlook (then a half-mile hike from there), and
about 6 miles back (it's a loop trail with one-way sections).

First we had to get to Canyonlands. We took the scenic route from
Monticello over the Abajo mountains, offering great views of the
lacolith triangle: the Abajo, Henry, and La Sal mountain ranges
are all rock which has been warped upward by subterranean magma,
without actually being made of volcanic rock themselves.

On the Saturday of Utah's week-long deer hunting season, the Abajo
route was crawling with trucks filled with blaze orange clad
passengers, pulling trailers laden with ATVs. Every pullout,
every campground, was full of hunters.
Ironically, twice during the day we had to slow down (and once,
stop) for large groups of does wandering near or across the road.
We never saw any bucks, but I guess the number of does on the road
suggests that the deer population isn't in any serious threat from
the hunters. But we nevertheless were glad we were going to be
doing our riding in a national park today.

Elephant Hill is as technical as we remembered it from our last
visit to Needles. We tried to ride up the hill, but gave up fairly
early and walked the steep sections. The trail alternates between
short, impossibly steep and technical rock sections (which we walked),
moderately steep and technical rock sections (which we mostly rode,
and enjoyed immensely) and long near-level stretches of deep fine
red sand (fun if you don't mind sliding sideways).

Dave rode more of the rocky uphills than I did, and I rode more of
the rocky downhills. I biffed on one downhill, coming off a rock
ledge into deep sand and landing hard on one hand. No permanent
damage.

No bikes are allowed on the half-mile section of trail from the end
of the road to the overlook, so we had to stash our bikes in the
bushes and continue on foot.

The confluence overlook is fabulous! It's just like the pictures:
you can see the boundary where the two differently colored rivers mix
to form one larger river. Apparently the colors vary depending on
what's been going on upstream; every picture is a little different.
Today, both rivers were muddy green, but different shades, with the
Colorado being darker and clearer than the Green. On the horizon,
you can see the three districts of Canyonlands: Island in the Sky
(between the two upper rivers), the Maze (along the west bank of the
Green) and Needles (where we stood, on the east bank of the Colorado).

The ride back was surprisingly easy, though going uphill through the
sandy stretches was a workout. We got back to Elephant Hill just as
a couple in a rented jeep began the first descent, so we had a
chance to see how it was done. The Jeep handled the tough descent
easily. I bet it didn't seem as easy from the driver's seat as it
looked from the outside.